Benedict Cumberbatch(there's that funny name again!) has been everywhere lately, and for damn good reason. He's a hell of an actor, capable of playing Sherlock Holmes and holding his own in the heavyweight cast of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He even turns up in War Horse in one of the film's many wasted roles. More than that, he was just named the villain in JJ Abrams' Star Trek sequel, which is actually the lesser of the two major franchises he finds himself a part of.
The main one is The Hobbit, which has him voicing and doing motion capture for the roles of the dragon Smaug and The Necromancer. While talking to Empire about Sherlock, they asked about Peter Jackson's upcoming two-part epic, Cumberbatch appears to have let slip a nugget that hints of some serious changes to the film's conclusion....
Cumberbatch: "I’m playing Smaug through motion-capture and voicing the Necromancer, which is a character in the Five Legions War or something which I’m meant to understand. He’s not actually in the original Hobbit. It’s something [Peter Jackson]’s taken from Lord Of The Rings that he wants to put in there."
In Tolkien's book, The Necromancer never turns up in the Battle of Five Armies. Gandalf and a team of wizards(which included Saruman, I believe) take him out early on, but it's done in the background and doesn't factor into the story in any meaningful way. It appears that what Jackson is doing is having him be the leader of the Goblin and Warg army that battles the dwarves and humans in the climactic battle.
It makes sense, as one of the most irritating aspects of The Hobbit is how Gandalf disappears for a good portion of the book. This should rectify that to some degree, and provide the story a more consistent nemesis for Bilbo and his companions to fight against. I know some traditionalists will be peeved, but it was a smart move.
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